


A Slow Burn

by misha_collins_butt



Series: I Knew I Loved You [19]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Fluff, Growing Up Together, High School AU, Human AU, M/M, Supernatural AU - Freeform, childhood AU, childhood best friends, human!Cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-01 23:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20265973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misha_collins_butt/pseuds/misha_collins_butt
Summary: Cas and Dean grow up together as next door neighbours, and eventually become something more.(And Gabe is a flirty shithead)





	A Slow Burn

Dean never knew what a friend was until he met his quirky, awkward, dark-haired neighbour, Castiel when they were 3. They would play with toy dinosaurs and build castles in the sand box in Cas’s backyard in the summer and make mud pies in his mother’s garden in the late spring after the first rain of the year.

They would also build snowmen, 2 feet tall with mini carrot noses and Dean’s father’s Mariners cap as a stand-in top hat in the middle of December before running inside for hot chocolate and blanket forts; and in the fall, when the leaves were red and yellow and the breeze was wispy, tinted with the scent of honeycrisp apples and fully bloomed flower fields from the orchard nearby, they would gather all the leaves into a pile between their yards and run and jump into them, laying there, eyes aimed at the faraway sun until Dean’s mum called them in for apple pie.

Their favourite thing, by far, though, was getting together on the Fourth of July and playing hide and seek in the park and swinging on the old swing set - the one with the broken swing chain and the tire swing on one end - for an hour before huddling into a special tent with a see-through roof, just the two of them, wrapped in blankets and pillows, watching the stars in the night sky blow up like bursts of laughter and fizzle away like the bubbles in a glass of root beer.

They spend most of their time at each other’s houses, even after they start school, but more times than not, they race back to Dean’s house because Dean’s baby brother was born almost a year ago and he’s still so small that they could stare at his rosy little cheeks for hours before going to find something else to occupy their time.

They join the peewee football team when they’re 10 and Dean impresses the coach with his tackling skills. Cas falls behind most of the time but Dean’s mum always takes them for ice cream and Dean sits there with his arm around Cas’s shoulders and his bright red lips lifted into a comforting smile.

When they make it to freshmen year, Dean’s still in deep with the jocks and Cas has deviated to the “nerdy” side of the scale. They don’t love each other any less, and Cas helps with Dean’s science homework sometimes because biology can be tough. Dean still calls him ‘Angel’, a fond childhood nickname. Sometimes Dean helps Cas work out and gets distracted by the ripples of muscle beneath the other boy's skin.

At some point, Castiel has to tell Gabriel to leave Sam alone but Sam doesn’t seem too uncomfortable with his flirting which makes Dean suspicious. At the same time, he’s trying to concentrate on how to ask Cas to prom. He doesn’t know how long he’s been in love with his best friend but he thinks it’s been forever.

When Gabe asks Sam to prom, Dean nearly punches him in the nose but he’s a junior and they’re less lenient on violence when you’re At That Age. Besides, Cas asked _him_ to prom. In the cutest way possible: using letters from the periodic table of elements. He made up an assignment for Dean (for “practise”) and had him narrow it down to four letters which he put together easily enough. Needless to say, he was dumbfounded.

They sneak away from the party in the middle of prom to talk. Just to talk. Really, that’s all they planned on doing. But Dean ends up grabbing Cas’s chin and pressing their lips together because he just looks so beautiful in the light of the moon and he thinks nothing will be the same after this. In a good way.

After they've graduated University - Cas with his major in biochemistry and minor in physics, and, surprisingly enough, Dean with a doctorate in psychology though he'd gotten a full ride for his football talents - they finally settle down together in the majestic comfort of suburbia.

Eventually, Dean proposes, though not nearly in such a nerdy fashion that Cas had asked him to prom with. Nevertheless, they marry, of course. Adopt three kids and two cats, and buckle up to spend the rest of their lives together.

They made it this far. There's no stopping them now.


End file.
